relation between the Law and the Word. The Law cannot be changed, and
the Word can. We have two factors, one variable, and the other
invariable; so that from this combination any variety of resultants may
be expected. The Law cannot be altered, but it can be specialized, just
as iron can be made to float by the same law by which it sinks. Now let
us try to figure out in our imagination an ideal of the sort of results
we should want to bring out from these two factors.

In the first place I think we should like to be free from all worry and
anxiety; for a life of continual worry is not worth living. And in the
second we should like always to have something to look forward to and
feel an interest in; for a life entirely devoid of all interest is also
not worth living. But, granted that these two conditions be fulfilled,
I think we should all be well pleased to go on living _ad infinitum_.
Now can we conceive any combination of the Law and the Word which would
produce such results? that is the question before us. The first step is
to generalize our principle as widely as possible, for the wider the
generalization, the larger becomes the scope for specialization. The
invariable factor we already know. It is the Law, always creating in
accordance with the Word that sets it in motion, whether constructive or
destructive; so what we really have to consider is the sort of Word
(i.e. Thought or Desire) which will set the Law working in the right
direction. It must be a Word of confidence in its own power; otherwise
by the hypothesis of the case it would be giving contradictory
directions to the Law, or to borrow a simile from what we have learnt
about waves in ether, it would be sending out vibrations that would
cancel one another and so produce no effect. Then it must be a Word that
does not compromise itself by antagonizing the Law of unity, and so
producing disruptive forces instead of constructive ones. And finally,
we must be quite sure that it really is the right Word, and that we have